Monday, September 12, 2005

ML 10 Angel Review!

Toybiz's Marvel Legends series ten Angel action figure.

SculptGood. Angle uses one of ML's most overused bases, previously seen with Deadpool, Silver Surfer, Vision, etc. You can identify this base by the giant ball shoulders, the lame armpit hinges(I call this up/down type stupid, because they're terrible). However Angel is one of the best uses of this base. They used a different upper torso on him, but the rest is essentially the same. The wings are the defining aspect of this character, and the figure lives and dies by how they're rendered. Thankfully Toy Biz did a beautiful job. Nicely detailed and BIG they look great on him, and elevate and okay figure to a good one. His face is somewhat bland, and for some reason the sculptor decided to cast Brad Pitt as his version of the character, because the resemblance is more than casual. If anyone ever does a licensed Brad Pitt figure, find out who sculpted this, because it's more faithful than most laser headscan-based sculpts.

PaintVery good. One of the reasons this base body never works out well is because it feels a bit cheap unless the plastic is high quality and usually the paint is skimped on in favor of colored plastic. This time however the figure seem to be entirely painted, and be made from a stronger form of plastic to account for the wings. The red tone and it's black detailing is very nicely done, and even the retarded Toybiz obsession with blue shading on white costumes, which is abundant on this figure, is actually decent-looking in person. The face is well painted, and the detailing on the wings is well rendered as well. This figure had the biggest single paint flaw of series ten, a blob of white paint on the lower right leg(photoshopped out in these pics). However it doesn't seem fair to give this a lower review for a freak mistake.

ArticulationExcellent. One of the pluses of this body base is that it's articulated as all hell. Angel even boosts this due to his wings, a hard effect to articulate on a figure. Toybiz managed to come up with a brilliant new joint* to use for it, a ratcheted hinge sculpted onto his back. Here's how he breaks down: neck hinge/swivel, armpit hinges, ball shoulders, bicep swivels, double-hinged elbows, mid-forearm swivel cuts(at the glove line), wrist hinges, knuckle hinges, wing ratchet hinges, ab hinge, waist swivel, ball hips, thigh swivels under the ball hips, double-hinged knees, mid-calf swivel cuts(at the boot line), ankle hinges, toes hinges. I count it as thirty five to thirty nine POA depending on how you base your count.

* - I've been informed they used a similar joint in the 5" days, though with weaker plastic and the design failed. Thanks to Fwoosh chatter GhostRider for the info.

AccessoriesGood. He comes with his wings, a flying stand(which he alone in all of ML10 actually needs), a piece of the Sentinel, and a comic book. Since this is the last review of a regular ML10 figure, I should not that these flying stands are a new design than that we've seen previously. They're made of thicker plastic on the stalk, and better, thicker knobs. They're not indestructible,

OverallVery Good. What look like a pretty dull figure turned out to be rather fun. Toybiz showed their knack for reusing an outdated sculpt and getting a lot of mileage out of it. Their innovation with the wings was a master stroke, especially considering the flawed attempt they made with they X-Men Classics Archangel figure's wings. Due to his size with wings on he'll probably be relegated to the back of people's displays, but not due to his being a poor figure.